Acquiring Minds

In December, Kyphon Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) announced plans to acquire spinal device manufacturer St. Francis Medical Technologies Inc. (Alameda, CA) for approximately $525 million. Later that month, the company signed agreements to acquire all of the spine-related product assets and associated intellectual property rights of privately held Disc-O-Tech Medical Technologies Ltd. (Herzeliya, Israel) and its U.S. subsidiary.

Orthopedics manufacturer Biomet Inc. (Warsaw, IN)
is being acquired by a private equity consortium for about $10.9 billion. The announcement came only weeks after the company acknowledged discussions with Smith & Nephew plc (London) concerning a possible merger. The news sparked speculation among analysts that Smith & Nephew might become a takeover target.

In early January, Siemens Medical Solutions (Malvern, PA) completed its acquisition of Bayer Healthcare's diagnostic
division. Bayer Diagnostics (Tarrytown, NY) and Diagnostic Products Corp. (Los Angeles), acquired in July 2006, were merged into a single business unit.